Every year, the 32 owners of the NFL teams meetup to discuss and vote on new potential rule changes. This year, the owners have voted to introduce a new kickoff rule that could drastically change the way the game is played. In addition, there were several other changes that will affect replays and replay challenges, as well as a change to hip drop tackles.
All of these rules will go into effect from the beginning of the new season. You can look forward to seeing how they work on September 5. You can also check all of the NFL betting lines for the upcoming season online. NFL futures are already available, with the 49ers current favorites ahead of the defending Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs. Here’s more details on the new rules and how they’ll work.
New Replay Rules
Replays and challenges are a big part of modern football, allowing the game to be fairer and taking away some of the discussion around referee calls. For previous seasons, coaches have had two challenges to referee decisions. They can throw a flag onto the field to challenge a call and this requires the referee team to consult an instant replay and get a better look. If the challenge is successful, the original decision is overturned.
For the new season, coaches will still get two challenges. However, if their first two challenges are successful, they’ll also get a third challenge. In addition, replays can be used to assess a greater number of calls.
For example, replays can be used to overturn a ruling that a quarterback was down or out of bounds before throwing a pass. In addition, a replay can be checked to confirm whether or not the game clock expired before the ball was snapped.
Tackle Ban
Tackles are an integral part of football and one of the reasons why it’s such an exciting sport to watch. Seeing big hits is part of the appeal, and thankfully, there are no plans to ban tackles. However, safety concerns around some tackles are still valid, which is why there are rules over how tackles can be made.
For the new rule changes, the owners of the NFL agreed that hip drop tackles should be banned. However, other tackles such as the “tush push” will remain legal. The hip drop tackle is where the defending player will grab the offensive player from the side or behind and drop their weight down onto their legs. Although it’s effective for smaller defenders to bring down larger offensive players, it can lead to injuries.
According to the data shown to the NFL owner committee, the hip drop tackle increases the risk of injury 25 times compared to a standard tackle. Obviously, the league needs to protect its athletes and avoid star players suffering career ending injuries. However, not everyone was happy about the decision to ban the tackle.
Kickoff Change
Perhaps the biggest and most significant change to the NFL this upcoming season is the new kickoff rule. While the current kickoff has become a fairly pointless and uninteresting endeavor, the change will hope to make things a bit more exciting. The rule is taken directly from the XFL, which had a lot of innovative changes which many fans enjoyed. NFL owners will be hoping that this change brings some more action to the game and makes kickoffs a bit more impactful.
Essentially, kickoffs will now be taken from the 35 yard line. However, instead of having all members of the kicking team in line with the kicker, they’re now 25 yards in front. Additionally, the receiving team starts out condensed between the 30 and 35 yard lines, with the exception of one or two runners.
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